


First Date Question

by gayhandshake



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Doesn't Do Things Halfway, Drabble, Episode Related, First Dates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 10:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9543113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayhandshake/pseuds/gayhandshake
Summary: "Do you want kids?" Alec asks and immediately wishes he had never been born.





	

"Do you want kids?" Alec asks and immediately wishes he had never been born. That's not a first date question, that's not a first date question at all. Is that an any date question? Now that he can't take it back, Alec is fairly certain that's the sort of thing that comes up around the same time as marriage. They should at least be living together. Maybe? Alec may never find out since he's brought up children on the first-

Magnus looks up from lining up the cue and smiles, soft and a little squinty eyed, and Alec eases out of his panic spiral. Magnus likes him. Magnus likes him despite (because of?) his proclivity for sticking his foot in it. For saying what he thinks.

"Children are a gift," Magnus responds, tapping the ball and breaking the formation. A solid yellow ball sinks into the corner pocket. "Though you must know I can't have my own," he continues with a rueful twist of his mouth.

Alec, fortunately, is able to stop the weird, uncomfortable laugh that he can feel building in his chest, and instead says, "I don't think we have all the appropriate equipment for that in the first place." It shocks a laugh out of Magnus, who misses his next shot.

"Ah, so that was your plan all along, to throw me off my game. Your dirty tricks will only get you so far, darling," Magnus says with a wide grin.

Alec knocks two balls into two separate pockets with his first shot and stares at Magnus from underneath his eyelashes. The grin melts into an exaggerated pout.

"I think dirty tricks can take you pretty far. But I don't need them," Alec smirks. He straightens up and leans on his stick for a moment, his face becoming serious. As usual, he's committed himself to this weird, inappropriate conversation now that he's put it out there. "And we don't need a kid to share our genes for it to be ours," Alec pauses and rubs his hand over the back of his head, looking at the floor.

He meets Magnus's eyes suddenly and rushes out, "I know this is a really weird thing to bring up on a first date, but it's really nice to think about, and I kinda want you to be thinking about it with me. And I'm sure there are plenty of warlock kids that need homes, and it's nice to think maybe one day that home could be ours. It's just. Nice," Alec finishes, quickly losing steam. 

Maybe this time he put his foot so far in it that it would never see the light of day again. His foot would end up in a museum, a critical marker in the fossil record. Tour guides would tell the story of the young man who brought up children before he'd even made it into bed-

Magnus's breath catches and something infinitely gentle – vulnerable – makes its way into his eyes. His soft, crinkly eyed smile returns, and he says, "That sounds really. Nice," a little teasing, but without mockery.

Alec feels the corner of his mouth pull up even as something wet catches in his throat. Magnus likes him, and his big mouth. Magnus thinks kids would be nice.

Alec leans back down and takes his next shot.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this, my first fic in nigh on a decade, in a brief fugue state last night. So there are a lot of things I don't like about it in the light of day, but I figured I would post it before I talked myself out of it. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
